The Sword Art Online Season 3 release date may be announced in October of 2017 during an event that will celebrate the release of the Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale Blu-ray disc. What’s more, a new SAO game seems likely to be confirmed based on the wording of the event page.

The English dub screenings of the Sword Art Online movie will be happening in August of 2017, and the overall franchise will be celebrated during the upcoming Dengeki Bunko Aki no Saiten 2017. The official web page has set the event for October 1, 2017, at the UDX in the Tokyo Akihabara district. Besides SAO, there are stage events planned for other anime like Tenshi no 3P! (Angel’s 3Piece!) and Kino’s Journey – The Beautiful World.

The tease about Sword Art Online Season 3 came when the page said, “Moreover, it seems that announcement of a new development of the SAO project, including a game, is also planned!?”

While the page does not directly declare SAO Season 3, such an announcement would fit in with the ending scene of Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale. The movie, which has been out in Japan for almost half a year, ended with a teaser that said, “SAO will return.”

Besides Sword Art Online Season 3, it’s possible the announcement could be about a Sword Art Online OVA 2 that fills in the gap between seasons, which would be similar to Sword Art Online: Extra Edition. However, there is not too much room left in the official SAO timeline since the story for Ordinal Scale barely managed to squeeze into late April of 2026. The next major story event written by Kawahara, a short story called “Ceramic Heart,” is set in early May and features Yui learning the concept of love and loss. Otherwise, the beginning of the Alicization Arc starts in June of 2026.

Kirito and a new character named Eugeo. [Image by ASCII Media Works]

Sword Art Online Season 3 Based On SAO: Project Alicization Light Novel Series

The adaptation of Sword Art Online: Alicization will probably take at least two to three seasons of anime. To put things into perspective, the first two seasons of the anime only covered the events of eight light novel volumes. Sword Art Online Volume 18 ended the Project Alicization arc, which means there is 10 volumes worth of source material for SAO Season 3 to draw upon.

In addition, Sword Art Online Volume 19: Moon Cradle, which was published in Japan in February of 2017, extended the story with events that took place before the end of the Project Alicization Arc. It’s expected that Sword Art Online Volume 20 will continue the new story arc based on the Cradle Of The Moon web novel. Therefore, it’s probably safe to presume that Sword Art Online Season 3 will probably end somewhere in the middle of the Project Alicization arc.

Another new SAO character will be Alice Zuberg. [Image by ASCII Image Works]